Whatever windows the title of this 1932 work refers to remain closed to us. Revueltas said, with typically malicious wit, "When I composed the music I may have intended to convey a definite idea. Now that several months have elapsed, I no longer recall what it was." Taken on its own, the ten-minute tone poem begins with great dissonance, especially in the eruptions from the brass section. Percussion and strings churn beneath further brass outbursts, until the woodwinds are allowed their quiet moment of meditative, serpentine melodies. Strife returns in an almost militaristic manner, but gives way briefly to tender utterances from the woodwinds, suggesting fragments of a Mexican folk song. Raucousness comes back, this time more blustering than menacing. New lyrical material appears in the winds, only to be muscled out by loud, polytonal chants from the whole orchestra. It's all brought to a sudden end by a series of quick, brutal chords.

© James Reel, All Music Guide